In playbuilding we can create a narrative or a collage. In this unit we will focus on collage playbuilding which will culminate in a group performance.
A collage is any work put together from assembled fragments. In a collage, different images are juxtaposed to create an overall impression. The structure of collage playbuilding contains a mix of dramatic and theatrical styles. There is no specific formula. Each scene stand by itself. Every scene is different. Each scene throws a particular light on the topic. The scenes work together to create meaning. This form of playbuilding allows performers to exhibit a range of creative and performance skills. You need to be highly imaginative and disciplined and show strong collaboration. It's very hard to do well, but very rewarding to achieve.
Research on the following topics; graffiti, rubbish, cliques, community.
Research on Graffiti.
Graffiti is any type of words or fancy words that is publicly marked somewhere such as a wall or a bus stop. Graffiti has existed for a long time it dates back to Ancient Rome and Greece where its earliest forms were present. Nowadays spray paint, marker pens and paint have been among the most popular materials used to draw graffiti. Graffiti is considered vandalism if it is drawn on someone's property without their permission.
Old grafitti
Modern Graffiti
What we did today and what is our spine? :) 29/07/11
Graffiti
Today we got placed into our groups. We created a tableau showing our topic literally, we created a machine showing our topic firguartively and we created an interview/documentary style report on our topic. Our machine was meant to be a spray can. We had the nozells at the front and the paint flowing into it at the back. Our report was about a man who was a graffiti artist who had painted his 'work' onto an old lady's house. I was the reporter, Kayne was the policeman, Lauren was the grandma and Sean was the graffiti artist.
Our Spine: Graffiti is good, its creative, innovative and art. There is nothing wrong with it.
Graffiti scene work. 1/08/2011
Our group worked on our style today. So far we came up with us starting with the classroom all dark and us in all black with glow sticks. We came up with this idea because graffiti for us is all about colour and expression and that is what we were representing with the glow sticks and movements. We were then going to get slower with the raving and form into our machine, the spray can. The spray can shows how the graffiti is made and is symbolic.
Tableau Our tableau spells the word 'ART' this relates to Graffiti because our spine is all about Graffiti being an art and the fact that it is there to show how people feel.
Graffiti in all of our opinions is a way to express your self and it is just a different type of art,
it is unusual and different
Miming Our mime starts off with us being stuck in a box. The box represents a society with no Graffiti therefore no freedom. Kayne then comes alive and sprays us with spray paint, this creates the idea that once graffiti has been sprayed in the box everything becomes and feels more alive. This represents the idea that graffiti makes people come alive and allows people to be expressive and not be stuck in a box of normal.
Chant Our chant is my favourite part of the whole performance. Everyone is chanting a word that represents in their opinion what graffiti is, for example my word is Creativity because I feel that Graffiti is about being creative. We all start to spin in a circle because we are combing all of our opinions to create a massive circle of graffiti.
Journal Entry 15/08/11
We worked on our piece again. We fixed up the courtroom scene and our interview scene.
In our courtroom scene we made everyone useful. By this I meant the other two people awaiting to be trialed became jail bars instead of just standing off in the side.
We also changed our interview scene by getting more into character and using everyone once again. Kayne and Lauren become different kinds of furniture and the way each character leans on the furniture also reflects their personality. We also changed the way we talked to each other we actually talk to the audience now so we interact with the audience because before we weren't. Sean also brings me forward to discuss the interviewees in front of the audience so they can hear our discussion but the other actors in the scene can't.
Lastly our performance didn't go for very long so we extended it. We came up with the idea of all becoming robots that all have the same name. This can show a society with
no graffiti--> this means it is boring and everything is the same. One person steps out of being a robot and becomes himself. The other robots don't know what he is doing as everybody has always been the same and no one ever steps out of line.
Journal Entry 22/08/11
Today we came up with our final scenes and rehearsed them over and over again.
Our scenes;
Sculpting: We start our performance off with 'scuplting'. Me and Lauren are two different kinds of artists that are fighting each-other because they agree on different ideas for making a sculpture. The artist I was representing liked the curved kind of art. Lauren was an artist that liked pointy art. Eventually we fight and fight and end up creating the word 'art'
Tableau: Our tableau created the word 'A.R.T'. Our spine is all about ART being a form of expression and that we should be able to express ourselves.
Mime: Our mime represents us all being stuck in this 'box' that is the ordinary society. Kayne steps out of 'society' and creates his own person. He sprays everyone with a spray can (this represents graffiti in a way) and everyone becomes their own person.
Chant: Our chant involves us all walking around in a circle and creating a world full of 'Art', 'Expression', 'Colour' and 'Creativity'.
Machine: Our machine is a spray can. Each part represents a different part of the spray can. I was the pain pouring into the can, kayne and lauren were spraying the paint out. Sean was controlling Kayne and Lauren's movements.
Interview: Our interview is all about expressing yourself. A man named 'Mr Gospel' walks into a job interview for a company. He states that he has 34 PHD's and it seems he has all necessary experience to fit the part. However one of the employers notices a tattoo and eyebrow piercings. 'the next candidate is a young blonde bimbo type girl. She has no experience and little education. She doesn't have tattoos or piercings so she ends up getting the job. She gets the job even though Mr Gospel would've been perfectly suited to it but he has tattoos and in the employers opinion tattoos and piercings automatically make the person who has them troublesome or 'dodgy' and not suitable.
Sculpting: We go back into another 'sculpting scene' this allows us to have a smooth transition. This time the artists are starting to see eachother's potential but they are still disagreeing on the idea.
Courtroom: Our courtroom scene is similar to our interview scene in the way that people aren't allowed to express themselves. 3 people are on trial for different 'crimes'. Swearing, tattoos and piercings and graffiti. These things are all 'frowned upon in society as they are allowing a person to express themselves which is so called 'bad'.
Literal Painting: The literal painting starts with us all standing in a straight line and we're all the same (bored). Kayne is a graffiti artist and walks along and shows people how to express themselves. He makes Lauren become art. He makes me swear which allows me to express myself and he makes Sean have some tattoos and piercings so he is his own person.
Swearing: This scene is set in a 'playground/school' type scene. Sean is really angry because two girls stole his pencil case but he doesn't want to express his anger through his words. Kayne represents Sean's anger that is building up inside of him. After much harassment Sean screams out the word F* which horrifies the girls that were teasing him.**
Sculpting. Our last sculpture shows the two artists agreeing on one 'masterpiece'.
Evaluation
What were the strengths and weaknesses of your group playbuilding?
Strengths
Our performance was abstract which meant it was different to all of the groups that performed. Our transitions were smooth and the performance flowed.
Our performance went for the correct length of time.
Weaknesses
The audience didn’t really understand what our spine was
We got the giggles at one point and forgot a few lines.
How did the audience respond to your performance?
The audience didn't respond that well to our performance. Judging from the feedback we got on what they thought our spine was it seems that 2/3rds of the audience didn't really understand what our performance's spine was. Most of them thought that the spine was 'Don't judge a book by its cover'. I can understand why the audience could think this way. Some of us forgot to say 'expressing ourselves' at the end of our lines which would've given them a bit more of a hint.
What would you do differently in the future and why?
I would make our spine become for obvious by using the words 'expression, art, graffiti etc more often to get the message across. I would like to do this because if we had the same audience they would probably be able to understand our performance more if they knew what the spine was.
READ AND MARKED 18.9.11
Criterion A
7-8
5-6
3-4
1-2
0
Knowledge and Under-standing
This is assessed through your DW & Performance 6
The student shows a thorough understanding of the topic under consideration. The student confidently applied theoretical knowledge and subject specific terminology to identify clearly the complexities of the materials studied.
The student shows a broad understanding of the topic under consideration, and applies theoretical knowledge and subject specific terminology to identify some complexities of the materials studied.
The student shows a basic acquisition of the theoretical knowledge and understanding of the topic studied. The student uses some subject specific terminology to show critical awareness
The student has required limited theoretical knowledge and little understanding of the topic studied
Student does not reach the standard described by any of the descriptors listed.
Criterion B
9-10
7-8
5-6
3-4
1-2
0
Application
This is assessed through your development of your performance 6
The student is highly competent in choosing and applying a range of skills and strategies for the realisation of work. The student’s processes and resolved work reflects a high level of proficiency and creativity.
The student shows competence in applying skills and strategies needed for the realization of work, which shows creativity and proficiency in technique
The student applies skills and strategies needed to produce creative work showing reasonable proficiency in technique
The student demonstrates success with basic skills and strategies. The work reaches a point of realization and shows some proficiency in technique
The student demonstrates limited abilities to use the skills and strategies. The work is of poor quality
Student does not reach the standard described by any of the descriptors listed.
Criterion C
7-8
5-6
3-4
1-2
0
Reflection and Evaluation
This is assessed through your online developmental workbook 6
The student gives a considered response evaluating the processing undertaken in producing the presentation. This evaluation includes an accurate analysis of the quality of the work produced and details of improvements which could be made.
A student reflects on the processes undertaken in completing presentation. The evaluation includes an appraisal of the quality of the work produced and an identification of areas of improvement.
A student provides an evaluation of his or her presentation development. Some aspects of the evaluation may be superficial
The student displays minimal ability to reflect on the processes undertaken in developing their presentation
Student does not reach the standard described by any of the descriptors listed.
Criterion D
7-8
5-6
3-4
1-2
0
Artistic Awareness and Personal Engagement This is assessed through your performance 5
The student demonstrates a high level of interest and personal engagement in the work, and shows initiative, enthusiasm and commitment.
The student is fully engaged in the work, and shows a willingness to develop further his or her potential.
The student participates in the presentation and shows self discipline and motivation for the work.
The student participates to some extent in the presentation yet shows little interest and personal engagement in the work.
Student does not reach the standard described by any of the descriptors listed.
Name: Sophie
Comment: (Performance) You need to relax when you perform and make sure you let your body be manipulated to show character and setting. Control your breath and make sure that before you perform you do some focused physical warm up to prepare you for performance. Each character must be different – you show this difference through your voice and body. When you watch the DVD back, did you notice that your voice remained the same throughout? And your movement too? Shift your center of gravity (low, middle and upper body) and see what impact this has on your character. This will help the audience to differentiate when you are playing a different role.
(DW) It’s interesting your research pulled out ‘old graffiti’ and yet this didn’t feature in your performance at all. Such as shame as this would have been a really unique avenue to pursue. Make sure you explain what you do when you ‘fix up’ a scene. What did you change and why and how does it increase the drama tic meaning on the scene? Your final evaluation is quite superficial. If your audience didn’t get your spine, this is a big problem and you dismiss it like it was their problems and not yours. Rethink this and consider what you could have done to make it clearer.
18/07/11
In playbuilding we can create a narrative or a collage. In this unit we will focus on collage playbuilding which will culminate in a group performance.
A collage is any work put together from assembled fragments. In a collage, different images are juxtaposed to create an overall impression. The structure of collage playbuilding contains a mix of dramatic and theatrical styles. There is no specific formula. Each scene stand by itself. Every scene is different. Each scene throws a particular light on the topic. The scenes work together to create meaning. This form of playbuilding allows performers to exhibit a range of creative and performance skills. You need to be highly imaginative and disciplined and show strong collaboration. It's very hard to do well, but very rewarding to achieve.
My collage :)
DRAMA STYLES. WE CAN USE THESE FOR PLAY BUILDING
Research on the following topics; graffiti, rubbish, cliques, community.
Research on Graffiti.
Graffiti is any type of words or fancy words that is publicly marked somewhere such as a wall or a bus stop. Graffiti has existed for a long time it dates back to Ancient Rome and Greece where its earliest forms were present. Nowadays spray paint, marker pens and paint have been among the most popular materials used to draw graffiti. Graffiti is considered vandalism if it is drawn on someone's property without their permission.
Old grafitti
Modern Graffiti
What we did today and what is our spine? :) 29/07/11
Graffiti
Today we got placed into our groups. We created a tableau showing our topic literally, we created a machine showing our topic firguartively and we created an interview/documentary style report on our topic. Our machine was meant to be a spray can. We had the nozells at the front and the paint flowing into it at the back. Our report was about a man who was a graffiti artist who had painted his 'work' onto an old lady's house. I was the reporter, Kayne was the policeman, Lauren was the grandma and Sean was the graffiti artist.
Our Spine: Graffiti is good, its creative, innovative and art. There is nothing wrong with it.
Graffiti scene work. 1/08/2011
Our group worked on our style today. So far we came up with us starting with the classroom all dark and us in all black with glow sticks. We came up with this idea because graffiti for us is all about colour and expression and that is what we were representing with the glow sticks and movements. We were then going to get slower with the raving and form into our machine, the spray can. The spray can shows how the graffiti is made and is symbolic.
Journal Entry. 11/08/11
Scenes: Tableau, Miming, Chant, Courtroom, wall painting thing, Interview, Musical, Machine.
Tableau
Our tableau spells the word 'ART' this relates to Graffiti because our spine is
all about Graffiti being an art and the fact that it is there to show how people feel.
Graffiti in all of our opinions is a way to express your self and it is just a different type of art,
it is unusual and different
Miming
Our mime starts off with us being stuck in a box. The box represents a society with no Graffiti therefore no freedom. Kayne then comes alive and sprays us with spray paint, this creates the idea that once graffiti has been sprayed in the box everything becomes and feels more alive. This represents the idea that graffiti makes people come alive and allows people to be expressive and not be stuck in a box of normal.
Chant
Our chant is my favourite part of the whole performance. Everyone is chanting a word that represents in their opinion what graffiti is, for example my word is Creativity because I feel that Graffiti is about being creative. We all start to spin in a circle because we are combing all of our opinions to create a massive circle of graffiti.
Journal Entry 15/08/11
We worked on our piece again. We fixed up the courtroom scene and our interview scene.
In our courtroom scene we made everyone useful. By this I meant the other two people awaiting to be trialed became jail bars instead of just standing off in the side.
We also changed our interview scene by getting more into character and using everyone once again. Kayne and Lauren become different kinds of furniture and the way each character leans on the furniture also reflects their personality. We also changed the way we talked to each other we actually talk to the audience now so we interact with the audience because before we weren't. Sean also brings me forward to discuss the interviewees in front of the audience so they can hear our discussion but the other actors in the scene can't.
Lastly our performance didn't go for very long so we extended it. We came up with the idea of all becoming robots that all have the same name. This can show a society with
no graffiti--> this means it is boring and everything is the same. One person steps out of being a robot and becomes himself. The other robots don't know what he is doing as everybody has always been the same and no one ever steps out of line.
Journal Entry 22/08/11
Today we came up with our final scenes and rehearsed them over and over again.
Our scenes;
Sculpting: We start our performance off with 'scuplting'. Me and Lauren are two different kinds of artists that are fighting each-other because they agree on different ideas for making a sculpture. The artist I was representing liked the curved kind of art. Lauren was an artist that liked pointy art. Eventually we fight and fight and end up creating the word 'art'
Tableau: Our tableau created the word 'A.R.T'. Our spine is all about ART being a form of expression and that we should be able to express ourselves.
Mime: Our mime represents us all being stuck in this 'box' that is the ordinary society. Kayne steps out of 'society' and creates his own person. He sprays everyone with a spray can (this represents graffiti in a way) and everyone becomes their own person.
Chant: Our chant involves us all walking around in a circle and creating a world full of 'Art', 'Expression', 'Colour' and 'Creativity'.
Machine: Our machine is a spray can. Each part represents a different part of the spray can. I was the pain pouring into the can, kayne and lauren were spraying the paint out. Sean was controlling Kayne and Lauren's movements.
Interview: Our interview is all about expressing yourself. A man named 'Mr Gospel' walks into a job interview for a company. He states that he has 34 PHD's and it seems he has all necessary experience to fit the part. However one of the employers notices a tattoo and eyebrow piercings. 'the next candidate is a young blonde bimbo type girl. She has no experience and little education. She doesn't have tattoos or piercings so she ends up getting the job. She gets the job even though Mr Gospel would've been perfectly suited to it but he has tattoos and in the employers opinion tattoos and piercings automatically make the person who has them troublesome or 'dodgy' and not suitable.
Sculpting: We go back into another 'sculpting scene' this allows us to have a smooth transition. This time the artists are starting to see eachother's potential but they are still disagreeing on the idea.
Courtroom: Our courtroom scene is similar to our interview scene in the way that people aren't allowed to express themselves. 3 people are on trial for different 'crimes'. Swearing, tattoos and piercings and graffiti. These things are all 'frowned upon in society as they are allowing a person to express themselves which is so called 'bad'.
Literal Painting: The literal painting starts with us all standing in a straight line and we're all the same (bored). Kayne is a graffiti artist and walks along and shows people how to express themselves. He makes Lauren become art. He makes me swear which allows me to express myself and he makes Sean have some tattoos and piercings so he is his own person.
Swearing: This scene is set in a 'playground/school' type scene. Sean is really angry because two girls stole his pencil case but he doesn't want to express his anger through his words. Kayne represents Sean's anger that is building up inside of him. After much harassment Sean screams out the word F* which horrifies the girls that were teasing him.**
Sculpting. Our last sculpture shows the two artists agreeing on one 'masterpiece'.
Evaluation
- Our performance was abstract which meant it was different to all of the groups that performed.
- We got the giggles at one point and forgot a few lines.
I would make our spine become for obvious by using the words 'expression, art, graffiti etc more often to get the message across. I would like to do this because if we had the same audience they would probably be able to understand our performance more if they knew what the spine was.What were the strengths and weaknesses of your group playbuilding?
Strengths
Our transitions were smooth and the performance flowed.
Our performance went for the correct length of time.
Weaknesses
The audience didn’t really understand what our spine was
How did the audience respond to your performance?
The audience didn't respond that well to our performance. Judging from the feedback we got on what they thought our spine was it seems that 2/3rds of the audience didn't really understand what our performance's spine was. Most of them thought that the spine was 'Don't judge a book by its cover'. I can understand why the audience could think this way. Some of us forgot to say 'expressing ourselves' at the end of our lines which would've given them a bit more of a hint.
What would you do differently in the future and why?
READ AND MARKED 18.9.11
This is assessed through your DW & Performance
6
This is assessed through your development of your performance
6
This is assessed through your online developmental workbook
6
This is assessed through your performance
5
Name: Sophie
Comment: (Performance) You need to relax when you perform and make sure you let your body be manipulated to show character and setting. Control your breath and make sure that before you perform you do some focused physical warm up to prepare you for performance. Each character must be different – you show this difference through your voice and body. When you watch the DVD back, did you notice that your voice remained the same throughout? And your movement too? Shift your center of gravity (low, middle and upper body) and see what impact this has on your character. This will help the audience to differentiate when you are playing a different role.
(DW) It’s interesting your research pulled out ‘old graffiti’ and yet this didn’t feature in your performance at all. Such as shame as this would have been a really unique avenue to pursue. Make sure you explain what you do when you ‘fix up’ a scene. What did you change and why and how does it increase the drama tic meaning on the scene? Your final evaluation is quite superficial. If your audience didn’t get your spine, this is a big problem and you dismiss it like it was their problems and not yours. Rethink this and consider what you could have done to make it clearer.